I. Field
The present disclosure relates generally to communication, and more specifically to techniques for supporting communication in a wireless communication network.
II. Background
Wireless communication networks are widely deployed to provide various communication content such as voice, video, packet data, messaging, broadcast, etc. These wireless networks may be multiple-access networks capable of supporting multiple users by sharing the available network resources. Examples of such multiple-access networks include Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) networks, Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) networks, Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) networks, Orthogonal FDMA (OFDMA) networks, and Single-Carrier FDMA (SC-FDMA) networks.
A wireless communication network may include a number of base stations that can support communication for a number of wireless devices. A wireless device may be a user equipment (UE), a remote device, etc. A UE is a device that operates under direct control by humans. Some examples of UEs include cellular phones, smart phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), wireless modems, handheld devices, laptop computers, netbooks, etc. A remote device is a device that operates without being directly controlled by humans. Some examples of remote devices include sensors, meters, location tags, etc. A remote device may communicate with a base station, another remote device, or some other entity. Machine-to-machine (M2M) communication refers to communication involving at least one remote device on at least one end of the communication.
Remote devices may have certain requirements such as low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) operation, low power consumption, etc. It may be desirable to support operation of remote devices in light of these requirements.